cummins isx wrote:the mobil refinery site in melbourne supplies fuel to 7/11 and BP, the caltex refinery (Yarraville) supplies caltex and shell have their own as well(in geelong). if you are after the best quality fuel stick with one of the companies i have mentioned. United fuel is crap as are most independent or "non popular" brands

There is no Caltex refinery in Melbourne. They have a terminal in Newport that would be supplied by the refineries at Corio and Altona. Likewise, Mobil's Yarraville terminal (which is jointly operated with BP) is supplied by pipeline from Corio and Altona. I would assume Shell's Newport at terminal is supplied from Corio.

Last I heard, United source their fuel from both Shell and Mobil. They also have their own terminal in Hastings which could be supplied by some imported product and I heard recently they have purchased an Ethanol plant in order to secure supply for their E10 product lines.

Australia now has quite strict fuel quality standards that must be adhered to. The introduction of these standards has created a huge barrier to entry for an independent importer to bring in cheap fuel from overseas because a lot of the cheap product does not meet Australian standards. Another barrier is a lack of storage capacity for an independent importer.

OKO wrote:Where a refinery produces for more than one chain, the additives vary between retail chains. So, BP 98 differs from Shell and so on.

The additives are added when the tanker is loaded. Therefore, as you say, just because you see a BP truck leaving a Shell facility does not mean the fuel is 100% the same.

In Qld, all 98 is imported, only 91 and the new 95 are produced in Qld, e10 will not be sold by majors as many vehicles cannot take it, the number of boats, lawnmowers, brush-cutters etc. will not take e10 so it is being phased out in Qld.Too much trouble with small engines and e10 goes off real quick, so no use here.When 98 is imported to Qld it is checked and if under 98 it is boosted up to 98 and then shipped to servos to be on sold to the public, unless you have a high performance engine in your vehicle that requires 98, there is not much point in using it in your vehicle unless you wish to help keep your engine cleaner on the inside.This information come from a personal friend that works at a Brisbane refinery and tests all the fuels produced and imported to his terminal.Once a tanker is loaded and leaves for the servos, the fuel is always checked and is at its best the older the fuel the less octane it contains and deteriorates quickly if you are storing petrol you need to add stabilizers to help keep the petrol usable for longer periods of time.98 is expensive because it is all imported by sea and you have to pay freight on it, a lot of diesel is imported as well. Moreton

My old Mazda used to love United 98 Octane, which is good given it was 3 cents or so cheaper than Vortex 95 at my local Caltex, but my current Commodore just runs on whatever is cheapest. I don't use E10 at all though.

An apprentice mechanic friend I know says that his boss, who has been around long enough to know a thing or two says that you can make your car run better by putting 250 ml of diesel in a 60 litre tank of petrol. Apparently the "oily" diesel helps lubricate the engine better-it sounds believable but I'm not game to try it.

I liked going to Shell aka Coles Express because you got to choose either 91 octane, 95 octane or 98 octane. In fact 98 octane is the best however, it was the dearest among the Coles Fuels. Thankfully, my mum had a Coles Fuel Discount Voucher to use.

Melbourne almost was down to one when the Shell refinery was up for sale. For a long time, Shell wasn't able to find a buyer so it got close to being decommissioned but Viva Energy (Vitol Geneva NL) bought it when they took over the licensing for the Shell servos in Australia.

I use BP Ultimate 98 in my 2003 Toyota Camry Altise - I get anywhere from 520km up to 560km a week out of 3/4 of a tank... have tried Shell V-Power and Caltex Vortex 98 but they did not seem to last as long!

I believe what you use is up to you - it's a hard thing to justify each of the fuels and how big a deal it is when people talk about the Premium 98's but I have proof that 98 will get you more distance per usable tank than regular (91)

I don't really notice that much difference in fuels in my 2000 Astra although I don't usually drive that often and only for short distances. I usually go to Shell as that's the closest to my house plus I usually have the fuel docket, but if their prices are uncompetitive then I'll head to some of the other retailers such as Caltex & on the one occasion recently, BP.

huppypuppy wrote:I use BP Ultimate 98 in my 2003 Toyota Camry Altise - I get anywhere from 520km up to 560km a week out of 3/4 of a tank... have tried Shell V-Power and Caltex Vortex 98 but they did not seem to last as long!

I believe what you use is up to you - it's a hard thing to justify each of the fuels and how big a deal it is when people talk about the Premium 98's but I have proof that 98 will get you more distance per usable tank than regular (91)

Definitely true that 98 octane fuels will give you more distance on a tank. The question is - is the cost per kilometre lower? The answer is...probably not. See:

I was pretty frustrated that I couldn't find a petrol station that served up E10 while I was in Melbourne apart from United stations (almost every service station in Sydney serves up E10). I use it because my car's owners manual recommends 95 octane fuel, and it also says the car is E10 compatible. Before you chastise me for driving a fancy European car while worrying about fuel, I drive a Suzuki Jimny.

I once tried 91 octane fuel in my car and it didn't like it (as expected). So I use E10, and it runs along just fine. That said, for most people with a bog standard car, 91 octane unleaded will run fine and cost them less.

mubd wrote:Definitely true that 98 octane fuels will give you more distance on a tank. The question is - is the cost per kilometre lower? The answer is...probably not. See:

I was pretty frustrated that I couldn't find a petrol station that served up E10 while I was in Melbourne apart from United stations (almost every service station in Sydney serves up E10). I use it because my car's owners manual recommends 95 octane fuel, and it also says the car is E10 compatible. Before you chastise me for driving a fancy European car while worrying about fuel, I drive a Suzuki Jimny.

I once tried 91 octane fuel in my car and it didn't like it (as expected). So I use E10, and it runs along just fine. That said, for most people with a bog standard car, 91 octane unleaded will run fine and cost them less.

Ethanol has a much higher rating that any form of petrol currently being sold, the octane rating of ethanol is 113 according to the first link in google search but wikipedia says 109.

Either way, once you mix it with petrol, it's going to lift the octane rating of the ethanol-petrol mixture.

However, despite the higher octane rating, ethanol has less energy density than petrol so 1 litre of ethanol won't take you as far as 1 litre of petrol.

I generally fuel up at 7-11 (all in my area used to own by mobil and often generally the last servo to jack up their prices during price cycles), with the occasional stint to caltex (preferably with wollies vocher) and metro petrol (there's only have 1 in my area, but they don't sell 91, but whenever i drive by forstville/frenches forest with half a tank, i will fuel up from the metro one, since its generally the cheapest out of the lot).

I rarely use Shell, and BP is often off my list (unless if is cheaper than others or i have no choice).

And I do not use E10 at all (and i own a 2015 swift)... I use 91 at least, or if no 91, i use 95 instead. My parents say use 98, but that a bit overkill...

And with the government annoyance on using E10 (i live in NSW), i hate it, but thank god many servos will still sell 91 at least (and its often 7-11 that will have 91 the most, and BP in my area don't have 91 at all, so that probs why i never use BP and use 7-11 for most of my fuelling)

I usually fill up at Costco, it's a bit of drive but their fuel is always about 16c/L or more cheaper than fuel everywhere else in Adelaide, so it's worth the trip. And with a thirsty EL Falcon, any saving is good...

Costco is a great place, unfortunately we worked out that driving all the way there and back again would be cost neutral to just filling up at the normal place, which is On the Run at Glen Osmond, Barker Petrol (in Mt Barker), Woolies in Mt Barker or AM/PM Always in Mt Barker. With so many servos in Mt Barker the prices always seem to be lower there anyway.